


A Mother’s Job Is Never Done

by Spikedluv



Category: Days of Our Lives
Genre: Adrienne POV, Community: trope_bingo, M/M, implied past-Sonny Kiriakis/Paul Narita
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 02:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2756006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spikedluv/pseuds/Spikedluv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrienne decides it’s time she has a talk with Paul Narita.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Mother’s Job Is Never Done

**Author's Note:**

> Adrienne pov. This idea popped into my head this morning while I was shoveling the sidewalk and demanded to be written. Written for the Matchmaker square at trope_bingo on DW. 
> 
> Spoilers through the episode that aired Tuesday, December 9, 2014, as that’s the last I’ve seen.
> 
> Written: December 11, 2014

“Hey, T,” Adrienne said as she set her purse on the bar. “Is Sonny around?”

“No,” T said, turning to look at Adrienne over his shoulder as he restocked the glasses. “He said he had a meeting with someone about the Southside location.”

“Darn,” Adrienne said. “I was hoping to catch him. He’s so busy lately, he doesn’t seem to have any time for himself. If Will and Ari were here, at least Sonny’d have a reason to go home at night and get some rest. Speaking of Will,” Adrienne said slyly. “Do you know if Sonny’s heard from him?”

“He hasn’t said,” T told her. “But I can tell you that _I_ haven’t heard from Will. All my calls go to voice mail and he hasn’t called me back once.”

“I’m worried about them,” Adrienne said. “Both of them. Will must be working very hard, as well, if he doesn’t have time to even call Sonny.”

“Sonny did mention that Will said writing the screenplay was more difficult than he thought it would be,” T offered.

“And he probably feels the need to prove himself,” Adrienne said. “I mean, since they approached him because of the article.”

“Yeah, probably,” T agreed. “That sounds like Will, anyway. He always was a perfectionist. Listen, can you excuse me for just a second while I check on the tables?”

“Of course,” Adrienne said. “I shouldn’t be keeping you from work anyway.”

Adrienne checked her phone while T was gone. She was sorry she’d missed Sonny – she wanted to talk to him about the holidays; if Will couldn’t come back to Salem, she and Justin had talked about sending Sonny to LA to see Will and Ari – but she was glad she’d had the opportunity to speak with T. She’d gathered some interesting information thanks to T’s normally unfortunate lack of discretion.

Adrienne heard a voice she recognized behind her, and her shoulders automatically went back. She turned slowly to see if her ears had deceived her, but no, T was clearing away an empty plate and laughing at something Paul Narita had said. She waited until T returned behind the bar, then leaned over and said, “T, do you know who that is?”

T smirked. “You noticed the celebrity in our midst,” he said. “I think he’s trying to go incognito, but he’s doing a pretty bad job of it.”

“Surprising,” Adrienne said dryly. Given how he had to sneak around because he was afraid to come out of the closet, she figured he’d have a lot of practice at it.

“What do you mean?” T said.

Adrienne startled. She hadn’t realized she’d spoken her bitter sentiment aloud. “I just meant . . . because he’s famous. He must have to elude paparazzi and crazy fans all the time.”

“Oh, yeah,” T said. “That must suck.”

Thankfully, a couple of businessmen came in just then and T excused himself to wait on them. Adrienne turned around and studied Paul Narita for a moment, then grabbed her purse and headed determinedly over to his table.

“Mr. Narita,” Adrienne said when she stood across from the man who’d broken her son’s heart.

Paul Narita looked up from the magazine he’d been pretending to read with a practiced, flirty smile that probably had the usual effect of throwing whoever he was talking to off-guard. Adrienne didn’t fall for it.

“I’m sorry,” Paul said, “do I know you?”

“No,” Adrienne said. “But I thought that should change.” She pulled out the free chair and settled gracefully into it. “My name’s Adrienne.” She held out her hand and Paul reached out automatically to shake it. “Adrienne Kiriakis.”

Paul’s smile didn’t slip, but she could feel the moment he realized who she was in the tenseness of his hand.

“Mrs. Kiriakis,” Paul said stiffly. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

“I wish I could say the same,” Adrienne said bluntly as she released Paul’s hand.

“Mrs. Kiriakis,” T said, appearing suddenly beside them and wringing his hands. “I’m not sure . . .”

Adrienne would’ve smiled at T’s attempt to apologize to Paul Narita while not appearing to insult her at the same time, if she wasn’t determined to have some words with Paul.

“T,” Adrienne said. “I’m just welcoming Mr. Narita to Salem. I want to make sure his stay here is a pleasant one. Why don’t you make me that caramel macchiato concoction that Sonny always makes me, and bring Mr. Narita another of whatever he’s drinking.”

T looked to Paul Narita for confirmation, the look on his face giving away the fact that he thought the other man was going to ask him to toss his boss’s mother out on her ass. Instead, Paul smiled and said, “It’s fine.”

The smile was genuine, at least, even if the words weren’t. Adrienne waited for T to walk away to prepare their coffees before speaking.

“What are you doing here?” Adrienne said, coming right to the point.

Paul’s smile didn’t fall, but it did change to something less genuine now that they were alone again. “I don’t know if Sonny told you he ran into me at the hospital,” Paul began.

“He did,” Adrienne said, and was pleased to see the mild shock that passed over Paul’s face.

“That’s right, I forgot,” Paul said. “That Sonny can talk to his parents about anything.”

Paul’s sadness sounded sincere, and for a moment Adrienne felt bad for him. But then she remembered that Paul had made the choices that put him in this position, the choices that had hurt Sonny.

“Well, if you know that,” Paul said, leaning forward so he could speak confidentially. “Then you probably also know about my shoulder surgery.”

“I do,” Adrienne said. “I’m sorry about your shoulder, but that doesn’t answer my question. What are you doing here?”

The public smile slid back over Paul’s face and he leaned back in his chair. Adrienne guessed that T was approaching with their drinks. She remained silent while T set them both down, and then stood awkwardly beside their table.

“Thank you, T,” Adrienne said. “You can get back to work now. I promise not to bite Mr. Narita.”

“Yeah, but sometimes your bark is worse than being bitten,” T muttered as he moved away.

Normally Adrienne would’ve called T on the disrespectful comment, but today it suited her purpose of keeping Paul on edge, and so she let it go. Adrienne took a sip of her drink – too sweet, she’d have to tell Sonny that T had a heavy hand with the syrup – and let the silence grow until Paul fidgeted in his seat and was willing to say anything to fill it.

“Dr. Jonas is one of the best surgeons . . .”

“No offense to Daniel Jonas,” Adrienne interrupted, in part to keep Paul off-balance, and in part to move the conversation along. Sitting there and listening to a list of Paul’s excuses for coming to Salem for his surgery was not an option. Especially since she figured they didn’t have much time. “But his isn’t one of the names that comes up as one of the top experts when you’re talking about rotator cuff surgery.”

Paul sighed. “I’m a free agent this year; I needed this surgery to fly under the radar.”

Adrienne nodded. “Alright. But the surgery is over now. Why are you still here?”

“Because Jordan Ridgeway is one of the top physical therapists in the country, and so I’ve decided to do my rehab here in Salem,” Paul said.

“Convenient,” Adrienne said. She could tell by the other man’s demeanor that he was feeling more confident now. She wanted to poke a little hole in it. “And the reason you’re here?” Adrienne gestured around them with one hand. “In my son’s club?”

“I can’t visit a friend?” Paul said with a cocky smile.

“Sure,” Adrienne allowed. “But you and Sonny were never friends. You were in a relationship with him for a year, if you can call something that you lie about and hide a relationship, and then you chose baseball and continuing to live a lie over Sonny and broke his heart, but you were never friends. Sonny tells me you still aren’t out.”

Paul went pale, but tried to hide his discomfort behind bravado. “Are you threatening to out me?”

“Of course not!” Adrienne said, appalled. “I would never do that to someone.”

“Not even to the man who broke your son’s heart?” Paul said dryly.

“Not even then,” Adrienne said. “But you’re doing a good enough job of it yourself.”

“What do you mean?” Paul said.

“You’re here, in Sonny’s club. You’re hanging around Salem with the plan to reinsert yourself into Sonny’s life. People are going to start wondering how you know Sonny. And it won’t take them long to figure it out if you keep giving them clues.”

Adrienne sipped at the cooling drink. “You know Sonny’s married.”

A flash of something gave away the fact that Paul did know. And he wasn’t happy about it.

“Did Sonny tell you that he has a daughter?”

Paul looked gobsmacked at that revelation. Adrienne got out her phone and opened her album, scrolled until she found the photo she was looking for. She turned the phone to show it to Paul; Sonny holding Ari and smiling, glowing with love and happiness.

“Her name is Arianna Grace, and Sonny loves her very much.”

“I can see that,” Paul said stiffly.

“What exactly was your plan here?” Adrienne asked as she set her phone on the table as a reminder. “Break up Sonny’s marriage? His family? Lure him back into a relationship where he has to hide?”

“Mom!” Sonny called as he hurried into the club. He practically tossed his briefcase at T, who caught it and placed it behind the bar.

“Sonny, sweetheart,” Adrienne said. “I take it T ratted me out?”

“What are you doing?” Sonny said.

“I was just having a pleasant chat with Mr. Narita.”

Sonny glanced at Paul, then turned his gaze back onto Adrienne. “Pleasant, right.”

“Actually,” Adrienne said as she gathered up her phone and purse and stood. “I stopped by to see you. Do you have a minute?”

“I’ll make a minute,” Sonny said darkly.

“Wonderful,” Adrienne said, ignoring the grim undertone. She turned back to Paul and held out her hand. Paul took it warily. “It was a pleasure speaking with you, Mr. Narita.” She leaned closer and spoke low so Sonny wouldn’t overhear. “If you truly love Sonny, don’t you want him to be happy?”

Adrienne followed Sonny to a corner where they could speak privately. “Before you yell at me,” she said, “I didn’t come in here expecting to run into Paul Narita stalking you.”

“He’s not stalking me,” Sonny said weakly.

“Convincing,” Adrienne said. She held up a finger when Sonny opened his mouth to speak. “But not what I wanted to see you about. Have you thought about your holiday plans?”

Sonny groaned and deflated a little bit. “Mom.”

“I’m just asking, have you thought about it? Have you and Will talked about whether he and Ari are going to come back to Salem for a few days? And if not,” Adrienne went on before Sonny could speak, “I want you to. Because if Will can’t come back home, then your father and I are sending you to LA for Christmas.”

“Mom.” Sonny’s eyes went bright and shiny, but he shook his head. “That’s too much, and I can’t leave Salem, anyway.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m busy!” Sonny said. “The other club . . .”

“Delegate,” Adrienne said firmly.

“To who? Chad is less involved than he ever was,” Sonny huffed.

“If not to your partner, then to your father and me.”

“I couldn’t do that,” Sonny said. “Besides, Dad isn’t even in town.”

“He will be,” Adrienne said, and then she smiled.

“Dad’s coming home?”

Adrienne nodded. “He’s just wrapping things up. He’ll be home next week.”

“That’s fantastic!” Sonny said, sweeping Adrienne up into a hug.

“I know!” Adrienne said as she hugged Sonny back tightly. “I miss him.”

Sonny set her back on her feet. “That’s why I know how hard it must be for you and Will. At least your dad and I talk, and Skype. You need to see each other.”

“I do miss him, and Ari, that’s not the . . .”

“Then it’s settled,” Adrienne said.

“Mom,” Sonny said, but he sounded resigned.

“We’ll sit down, and we’ll go over the plans for the club. Your father and I do have some experience running a business, you know. We can keep an eye on the contractors, and you’ll only be a call away. Unless LA is a black hole and that’s why no one’s heard from Will,” Adrienne said. At the look on Sonny’s face, she added, “Sorry, bad joke. I’m going to call your father, you call Will and tell him you’re coming out.”

Adrienne hugged Sonny. “Trust me,” she said. “Everything is going to work out just fine.”

Adrienne released Sonny and unlocked her cell phone to dial Justin. The photo of Sonny and Ari popped up. She turned the phone so Sonny could see the screen. Sonny took the phone out of her hands and stared at the photo, a bittersweet smile curling the corner of his lips.

“What’s this doing open?” Sonny asked.

“I was looking at it,” Adrienne said. “Reminding myself what you look like when you’re happy.”

Sonny rolled his eyes, but let Adrienne take the phone back. He leaned down dutifully so Adrienne could plant a kiss on his cheek.

“I’ll talk to you later,” Adrienne said as she wiped her lipstick off Sonny’s cheek. She opened her contacts and pressed the buttons to dial Justin as she walked out of the club. She refused to glance in Paul Narita’s direction, but she hoped that he’d gotten the message she’d been trying to send.

Adrienne placed the phone to her ear and listened to it ring. Everything was going to work out fine, just as she’d promised Sonny. She’d do everything she could to make sure of it. A mother’s job, after all, was never done.

The End


End file.
